The Northside boys’ basketball coach said following his team’s 63-41 win at East Duplin that he didn’t mind his Monarchs sharing the East Central 2-A Conference regular season title with Clinton.

“I’d rather finish tied for first than finish second,” Marshburn said.

Northside (19-3, 11-3) will share the ECC crown with Clinton (17-6, 11-3), which beat South Lenoir 78-61 on Friday. A coin flip today will determine which team gets the top seed for next week’s conference tournament at Richlands High School.

The team that advances the furthest in the tournament will be the ECC’s top seed for the NCHSAA 2-A playoffs.

But the Monarchs will have time to think about all those ramifications. For now, they can enjoy a conference title.

“It means a lot,” said Northside’s Kris Curry, who had 16 points and 6 rebounds Friday. “We came out and played to our potential.”

That’s especially true late in the season, Marshburn said.

“We had to go on the road (at Clinton and East Duplin this week) and we had to get a win and we did,” he said.

Meanwhile, East Duplin (8-16, 6-8) will be the ECC’s fifth and final state playoff seed, a position the Panthers got after Richlands lost to Croatan on Friday.

The only way the Panthers don’t make the playoffs is if a lower-seeded team wins the conference tournament.

East Duplin had lost 91-40 at Northside on Jan. 22, but played better this time around against the Monarchs, but still couldn’t catch Northside.

“They are really deep,” East Duplin coach Robert Ross said of Northside. “They have so many guys on the bench. We got tired.”

Jamal Parker added 13 points and Josh Cabrera had 9 points and 6 rebounds for the Monarchs. East Duplin’s Nicholas Williams scored all 19 points in the second half.

Despite East Duplin slowing the tempo down early, the Monarchs outscored the Panthers 13-2 in the first quarter. Northside then took a 32-12 lead into halftime.

“Our strategy was to start the game by just getting back on defense and controlling the boards,” Marshburn said. “When they (Panthers) started moving the ball, we started to extend our pressure.”

Curry was big in helping the Monarchs keep their lead in the second half. After Parker drew his third foul with 4:55 left in the third quarter, Curry scored 5 points on Northside’s next three possessions.

He finished with 11 points in the second half.

“Jamal has been telling me to be a man child and I was,” Curry said. “I felt I could take it to them.”

Marshburn was impressed with Curry’s play.

“Kris is a warrior. He battles,” Marshburn said. “He’s a competitor all the time.”

Williams, though, kept the Panthers competitive in the second half after he did not play in the first half due to what Ross said was a coach’s decision. Williams scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, including a field goal with 5:40 left in the game that put East Duplin to within 47-35.